Making Your Content Work for You

Meta: Make your content work harder for your business. HV Social Media shares tips on ways to repurpose your content including revisiting old topics and cross channel posting.

At one point or another, we’ve all heard that we should work smarter, not harder. That raises a question: is it possible to make your content work harder without taking too much time out of your day? Experience has taught us that the answer is a definitive yes.

Five Ways to Repurpose Your Content

HV Social Media shows how and why you can repurpose your content to make it work better for your business.

Revisit Old Topics

Did you make a set of predictions for your industry or resolutions for your company in January? Revisit your promises and predictions and see how you’ve done. You can take a similar approach with evergreen topics of all shapes and sizes, coming back to them in light of what’s changed in the industry. What are some new best practices in your industry? What are some things you did a few years ago — with great enthusiasm — that you’d never do again? Don’t let your content become encased in amber.

Pay Attention to Your Analytics

Your Google analytics, or even something as simple as the JetPack stats on a WordPress blog, can give you a lot of information about your readers. One of the most useful is how they’re finding you and your content. If you pay close attention, you can see the kinds of questions your readers are trying to answer. You may want to update existing content, or reach out to a broader audience on different platforms, based on what your analytics are telling you.

Take Your Content Off-Label

Don’t “just” write a blog post, or post a YouTube video. Don’t just ask yourself, “What is this?” Ask yourself, “What else could this be?” Infographics can be sliced and diced for PowerPoint decks. Blog posts can be changed up and used for video scripts. Your Instagram posts can be adapted to Facebook, or the more interesting bits of research that ended up on the cutting room floor repurposed for Twitter.

Change the Channel

Think about the shared content you’ve seen. Some of it has been co-branded (those infamous sponsored Buzzfeed lists and quizzes), some of it from media outlets like Fast Company, and some from companies that recognize quality when they see it. Sometimes the best way to build authority is to let someone else blow your horn.

Find New Boxes

Just like a shark will grow to the size of its tank, if your business is feeling constrained, it’s time to find a bigger tank, or a bigger box to think outside of. Rather than keeping everything in-house and restricting your messaging to your own social media presences. Crossover and collaboration — in the form of a podcast with other thought leaders, interviews with customers and influencers on YouTube, or taking your thoughts offline and into the real world via print and in-person talks — can breathe new life into your business.

Five Reasons to Repurpose Your Content

Now that we’ve covered the how of it. let’s look at why you should repurpose your content.

If at First You Don’t Succeed….

Content doesn’t always work the first time. It could be that the timing is wrong. It might be that you’ve targeted the wrong audience. It could also be that the medium isn’t quite right. Your long-form blog post might get more traction as an infographic. A picture might be worth a thousand words if those words give context or tell a compelling story. New developments may make a piece that was a bit ahead of its time perfect here and now.

Time is Money

As much as we’d like to hand-craft completely unique content for each channel, there are only so many hours in the day. Creative re-use lets you blanket multiple channels without taking too much time on each.

Reach New Audiences

Finding new channels takes work, but the reward is finding new audiences with whom to establish your authority and worth. A well-placed guest post on a related blog or site, or a think piece in a venue like Quartz or Medium that fleshes out an idea an earlier blog post only hinted at can bring you much-needed attention.

Reinforce Your Message

If your customer is doing their homework on you, they may be keeping tabs on what you’re saying across multiple channels. Seeing the same information presented in different ways in different places hammers that message home and converts shoppers to buyers, or clients to evangelists for your brand.

Expand Your Content Comfort Zone

Maybe you’re not confident in your writing ability or you’re uncomfortable in front of a camera. Each effort you make in an area that’s unfamiliar or a bit uncomfortable doesn’t just grow your audience. It grows your skill set and expands your comfort zone. That makes you, and your business, stronger.

Of course, there are many more ways — and at least as many more reasons — to expand how you create, distribute, and think about your content. The only limit is your imagination. For a fresh perspective on content production, bring a partner like HV Social Media to the table.

5 Comments

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Hope to hear from you soon.

P.S.
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